Key Highlights
- Eliud Kipchoge, sporting a white INEOS shirt, smiles as he becomes the first person to run a marathon in less than two hours, and Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli walk side by side.
- Seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton, then also with Mercedes, perches atop an INEOS Grenadiers vehicle alongside Sir Jim Ratcliffe. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBetween Ratcliffe and INEOS — the petrochemicals company he founded, co-owns and chairs — more than £2.5billion ($3.3bn) has been invested in the past eight years across sports including football, cycling, sailing and running, according to publicly available information. Yet the interest in women’s sports seems practically non-existent. In cycling, INEOS took control of Team Sky in April 2019 — now competing as INEOS Grenadiers — and was urged to start a women’s team by many, including the former head of the UCI, cycling’s world governing body, Brian Cookson.
- It never happened.“It’s a surefire miss,” one former professional cyclist tells The Athletic.
- “I’m baffled as to why Ratcliffe hasn’t done it.”AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIn F1, INEOS is a partner and one-third owner of Mercedes-AMG Petronas, which has a French driver, 21-year-old Doriane Pin, in the sport’s all-women F1 Academy series. Ratcliffe has also backed women in leadership positions across the business side of INEOS. Lynn Calder is chief executive of INEOS automotive, makers of the Grenadier 4×4, and Florence Bardot and Natalina Arena hold senior finance roles in the petrochemicals field.
- Fran Millar was made CEO of Team Sky, INEOS Grenadiers and INEOS’ former fashion business Belstaff, since bought by sportswear group Castore in August but in which INEOS retains an interest through a strategic investment agreed as part of that sale.